Zur Namengebung Balzacs in der ‘Comédie humaine’

Ein Beitrag zur literarischen Onomastik

Abstract

About Balzac’s naming in the ‘Comédie humaine’. A contribution to literary onomastics. What do Gobseck, Grégoire Rigou and La Torpille have in common? There are three of about 2000 characters’ names of the ‘Comédie humaine’ (1842-1855) by Honoré de Balzac. However, they not only designate the figures, they also draw them: in character, biographically, mystifying, playing with semantics, sound, intertextuality and the theory of predetermination by a name. The essay, basing on the author’s MA thesis in 2002, deals with the wide landscape of personal names in Balzac’s cycle of 98 novels and short stories, embedded in the typologies of literary names of Lamping, Birus and others. Numerous examples show how Balzac understood names as action-bearing and connecting text elements and how he used the expressiveness of names as a great narrator. His special gift of finding names does not contradict his intention to create fictionally a realistic image of the French society. By analyzing Balzac’s names, the essay seeks to sensitize the readers for their own excursions into literary onomastics.